Read The Stud for Free Online Page A

softer. "I know. It's harder to explain this part. "
    "Take your time. "
    What she took was a deep breath. Time wouldn't help, not when she had always been self-conscious about intimate things, and certainly not when she kept thinking of him lying buck naked in bed. So she spit out the words with begrudging resignation. "I became aware of my body. I was made a certain way for certain reasons, and I wasn't fulfilling those reasons. "
    "What do you mean?" he asked.
    He was a virile man with a knowledge of sex that she couldn't begin to match. She assumed he was being purposely dense. "You know what I mean. "
    "I want you to explain. "
    She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she focused on the driftwood sculpture she had bought in the Bahamas several years before. It reminded her of sun and sand, and was totally asexual. It took her mind off Spencer. "I have ovaries to create a child with, a uterus to carry a child in and breasts to put a child to. I haven't done any of those things. It's a waste, wouldn't you say?"
    "That depends on what else you do with those things. Children aren't the only beneficiaries of breasts and ovaries. Men can be, too. "
    She forgot about the driftwood sculpture as a tingle ran up her spine. She shifted her hip against the sheet and laid her hand lightly between her breasts. "Ovaries?" she asked weakly. "How do men benefit from ovaries?"
    "Ovaries produce the hormones that make you different from me. They affect the way you look, the way you smell, the way you respond to me. "
    She wasn't touching any of that. Thin ice wasn't something she skated on for long. She took a shaky breath. "Okay. Well. I was talking about my body in relation to having children, and when it comes to that, I'm feeling very unfulfilled. "
    "Clearly you're unfulfilled when it comes to men, too. "
    "Why do you say that?" she asked in a huff.
    "Because you're all but dragging men off the street in a bid for sperm. "
    She sat up straight. "I am not dragging men off the street. You are the only man I've asked, and I did that for specific reasons. Just because I don't know any other men whose genes I'd want doesn't mean I'm not involved with any men. "
    "Are you?"
    "That's none of your business!"
    "Oh, but it is, " he said smoothly. "There are health issues involved, for one thing. You've told me you don't want a man around the house, but if you're hopping from one bachelor pad to another when you get the urge for sex, you could have picked up a disease. Me, I was using condoms long before it became the rage, because I didn't want to risk any unplanned pregnancies, but other guys may not be so careful. "
    "I don't have any diseases. I'm healthy. I told you that. "
    "Okay, then there's the issue of having men around this child you're proposing to have. I wouldn't like the idea of a child of mine having a stream of 'uncles' coming in and out of its life, any more than I'd like the idea of your leaving the kid with a sitter and running out for sex four or five nights a week. So are you sexually involved with any men at this time or not?"
    "Not, " she said, because the issue of pride was nothing compared to the issue of having a child. If letting Spencer Smith know that her social life was lousy was a condition of his donating his sperm, she'd do it.
    "When was the last time you were sexually involved with someone?"
    She swallowed. "Three years ago. "
    "Who was he?"
    "A journalist from New York. I met him at a show in Paris. We were together there, then briefly when we got back. "
    "And before him?"
    She plucked at the sheet. "There was an accountant a few years before that. "
    "A few?" he prodded.
    "Four. We were together a month. " She pushed herself on, but angrily and feeling suddenly close to tears. Remembering past relationships made her feel empty. "Before him, there was a guy I met in business school, and that's it. Not exactly a history of wildness. Nothing resembling nymphomania. Nothing to corrupt a child with. If I